it's said, "my body lies over the ocean, my body lies over the sea, my mommy lies over my daddy and that was the start of me?? so I am told.lol
How did you get your start?
- Thread starter jrider
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It was cold real cold, waking up in the morning hair frozen on the wall, 16" bowsaw got me out of that, never looked back, just seem to work a lil smarter now.
Erik B
ArboristSite Guru
Never burned wood while growing up, except for the occasional bonfire. Bought our house in '80 and it came with a zero clearance pre-fab metal fire place. Burned some wood in that for a couple of years and I was cutting with a bow saw and splitting with a hatchet. No future in that so we got an insert for the fire place, a Homelite super XL and a splitting maul. Still using the insert but have added two chainsaws, splitter, garden tractor and trailer. At least we have our own land to get our wood from.
pennsywoodburnr
supreme scrounger
My start wasn't as ambitious as some of the others on here have had. Back when I lived down south, my old man cut down trees to heat the house during the winter. I can still remember him coming home with the back bed of the pickup filled. This went on for a couple years, and as his pay increased, heating with wood just didn't seem as critical. Fast forward about 15 years or so, and he gets a transfer with the company up north here. All of a sudden after seeing heating bills, he's fine with wood heat again LOL. By this time I was strong enough to swing an axe, so I split on a stump right along side of him. I learned a lot from him about firewood. Since then though, my knowledge has far surpassed his. He can't I.D. trees as well as me, he never got any of the equipment I've acquired over the years to help with my tree felling jobs, and he still thinks my 42cc poulan is, in his words, "a big saw" 
LOL. It's like the teacher is now the student.
LOL. It's like the teacher is now the student.
1project2many
ArboristSite Guru
I'll keep this firewood related. It's still long.
My grandfather had a trucking company for many years and my dad worked soooo many hours for less than he was worth trying to keep it alive. During the gas crunch of the '70s we just couldn't afford much heating oil. He'd take 5 gallons of diesel each night from whatever truck Grandpa let him drive home and that was our heat for the next 24 hrs. I remember trying to set up dominoes on the kitchen floor and my hands shaking so bad they kept falling over. Dad bought a small box stove from a neighbor with $$ he borrowed from his brother who was living the "hippie life" in a barn. He did his best to build a masonry chimney, and we became wood burners.
Dad's one of those guys that most folks call "book smart" so learning to cut and burn wood was an adventure. In truth most things we did together was an adventure. And many times it seemed like I as the kid could see what he as the adult couldn't which made it tough. He was a proud man then and didn't believe a child should know more than an adult. We argued then and we argue still today. But I have fond memories of making "logs" because he assigned me the job of rolling sticks tightly into newspapers the first year, and of searching through the 100 year old apple orchard behind the house for dead branches to burn, and later of going out to get wood. Dad would borrow Grandpa's big, blue Clinton saw and a company truck and we'd scrounge wood. At one point Dad was picking up bits left by a logger and often over the next few years we'd drive a couple of towns away to land owned by Grandpa to get wood. As I type this I realize we never really had much of a wood pile so we must have burned quite a bit green or at least wet. Dad was afraid of the stove and would never let it get very hot or burn overnight so it wasn't long before I volunteered to sit with the fire overnight in the basement. I dragged home a chair my friend's dad was throwing out and cleared out a spot by the stove and that was my bed for much of the winter. I kept it good and warm in the house.
Years after my parent's divorce I'd found a friend that was kind of like the dad I'd never had. He let me work out of his shop building stuff, fixing cars, and doing all sorts of things and was a mentor as life just seemed to be heading the wrong way. He also taught me how to really work. Among the many things he did to make money was selling firewood. I didn't get to run the saw but I spent many hours helping his 80 year old mother lifting wood to put on the splitter, stacking it, loading it into the truck, unloading it for customers then stacking it again. Eventually I graduated to driving the truck to make deliveries solo. I was 18 or so at the time and I had a lot of pent up anger that I worked out with a 9 lb maul and the pieces of wood that were too large for the splitter. Although I never ran the saw I learned much more than if I'd been allowed to. I learned what trees are good for firewood, how to sharpen a chain, how to maintain the saw, how stacking a cord when your buying wood is different from stacking a cord when you're selling it...
Many years later I bought my first house, this house, and our first night here the boiler used nearly 1/4 tank of oil. I could see this wasn't going to work so I went down to the hardware store and bought a bow saw, scrounged up some dead wood around the place, and fired up the tiny potbelly stove in the kitchen. Nine years later I'm pretty well entrenched in the life and I love it. My chainsaw collection seems to be growing on its own, I've got enough wood to stay warm for a couple of years, and I'm doing my best to make sure my five year old son knows the value of hard work and to make sure that if he finds himself reading stories of folks reminiscing about dad that he's got more good memories than bad.
My grandfather had a trucking company for many years and my dad worked soooo many hours for less than he was worth trying to keep it alive. During the gas crunch of the '70s we just couldn't afford much heating oil. He'd take 5 gallons of diesel each night from whatever truck Grandpa let him drive home and that was our heat for the next 24 hrs. I remember trying to set up dominoes on the kitchen floor and my hands shaking so bad they kept falling over. Dad bought a small box stove from a neighbor with $$ he borrowed from his brother who was living the "hippie life" in a barn. He did his best to build a masonry chimney, and we became wood burners.
Dad's one of those guys that most folks call "book smart" so learning to cut and burn wood was an adventure. In truth most things we did together was an adventure. And many times it seemed like I as the kid could see what he as the adult couldn't which made it tough. He was a proud man then and didn't believe a child should know more than an adult. We argued then and we argue still today. But I have fond memories of making "logs" because he assigned me the job of rolling sticks tightly into newspapers the first year, and of searching through the 100 year old apple orchard behind the house for dead branches to burn, and later of going out to get wood. Dad would borrow Grandpa's big, blue Clinton saw and a company truck and we'd scrounge wood. At one point Dad was picking up bits left by a logger and often over the next few years we'd drive a couple of towns away to land owned by Grandpa to get wood. As I type this I realize we never really had much of a wood pile so we must have burned quite a bit green or at least wet. Dad was afraid of the stove and would never let it get very hot or burn overnight so it wasn't long before I volunteered to sit with the fire overnight in the basement. I dragged home a chair my friend's dad was throwing out and cleared out a spot by the stove and that was my bed for much of the winter. I kept it good and warm in the house.
Years after my parent's divorce I'd found a friend that was kind of like the dad I'd never had. He let me work out of his shop building stuff, fixing cars, and doing all sorts of things and was a mentor as life just seemed to be heading the wrong way. He also taught me how to really work. Among the many things he did to make money was selling firewood. I didn't get to run the saw but I spent many hours helping his 80 year old mother lifting wood to put on the splitter, stacking it, loading it into the truck, unloading it for customers then stacking it again. Eventually I graduated to driving the truck to make deliveries solo. I was 18 or so at the time and I had a lot of pent up anger that I worked out with a 9 lb maul and the pieces of wood that were too large for the splitter. Although I never ran the saw I learned much more than if I'd been allowed to. I learned what trees are good for firewood, how to sharpen a chain, how to maintain the saw, how stacking a cord when your buying wood is different from stacking a cord when you're selling it...
Many years later I bought my first house, this house, and our first night here the boiler used nearly 1/4 tank of oil. I could see this wasn't going to work so I went down to the hardware store and bought a bow saw, scrounged up some dead wood around the place, and fired up the tiny potbelly stove in the kitchen. Nine years later I'm pretty well entrenched in the life and I love it. My chainsaw collection seems to be growing on its own, I've got enough wood to stay warm for a couple of years, and I'm doing my best to make sure my five year old son knows the value of hard work and to make sure that if he finds himself reading stories of folks reminiscing about dad that he's got more good memories than bad.
JolietJake
ArboristSite Lurker
It is really great to read everyone's story. As others, my parents being of the depression heated partially with wood. My times the gas boiler never went on except on real cold days. I have fond memories of "helping" cut firewood with dad with the two man hand saw and when he bought a chainsaw, I was dying to run it. Probably about 12 yrs. old. And of course he was an exercise in patience with me that I didn't realize until I was a dad and my son was next to me constantly. PRICELESS
So, when I was about 16 dad was the dumbest guy in the world until I was about 22/23, then I realized he was the smartest guy in the world. My son turns 23 in January and yesterday while helping him with his car he remarked, "how do you know all this stuff" ? So, I guess what goes around comes around.
Merry Christmas to all.
So, when I was about 16 dad was the dumbest guy in the world until I was about 22/23, then I realized he was the smartest guy in the world. My son turns 23 in January and yesterday while helping him with his car he remarked, "how do you know all this stuff" ? So, I guess what goes around comes around.
Merry Christmas to all.
I remember dad buying a brand new 1964 ford ton truck. Only brand new auto I can remember dad ever having. I was 7 years old. He made a wood bed for the truck and Dad, my brother, and myself would go to the woods and cut 5ft pulp wood. My brother and I where to small to do much, we would carry the measureing stick for the 5ft cuts and then stand on each side of the truck bed to stack wood up as Dad shouldered the wood onto the truck. I remember running the saw with dads arms wrapped around me to help me hold it. As time went buy, Dad bought a Big stick loader to put on the truck. We thought that was heaven, no more shouldering the wood to the truck. The loader had 200ft of cable and we could reach about anything that needed cutting. Before I had my drivers license, I had my own truck, a old international with a tilt boom loader, my brother had a flatbed chevy. We would take both trucks to the woods and use the loader to drag the wood up and swing it onto the flatbed first, then load the international. Those old trucks wouldnt hold but about a cord each. Then we would load the ford which held about a cord and a half. We would drive those truck to the main highway and park my brothers and my truck and head home to get mom. Mom would drive the trucks to the wood yard. We would cut wood all day on Saturday to make sure we had enough to load each truck in the evenings during the weekdays. Dad had a full time job but we would try to get at least one load every evening and load all three trucks on Sat. Dad finally sold all three trucks and bought a 2ton ford and a Kennemer cable log loader. We started hauling log lenghts and saw logs. Once I got married and started working to support a family, I was always on the road with my job. I still would go home on weekends and help dad get a load of logs somewhere. Dad had stopped buying timber boundries and was just picking up trees here and there from private individuals. The house I am living in now was built from timber my dad and I harvested and had sawn. The cabinets in the house I used to live in was built from wood we harvested and so are the cabinets in my brothers house.
I have never been an official wood cutter, since grown. My job didnt allow time for anything more than part time grab a load here and there. Maybe clear a house site, grab a few loads of firewood to heat my house. Always at my convience, not a have to get-er done type of deal. I still cut and use wood to heat my house and plan to as long as I am able.
I have never been an official wood cutter, since grown. My job didnt allow time for anything more than part time grab a load here and there. Maybe clear a house site, grab a few loads of firewood to heat my house. Always at my convience, not a have to get-er done type of deal. I still cut and use wood to heat my house and plan to as long as I am able.
KindredSpiritzz
ArboristSite Operative
Guess the seed for me was planted about 12 yrs old when we moved out to the country to a big old drafty farm house. I remember waking up for school in the morning, mom would have the wood stove roaring and i'd stand around that trying to warm up and wake up while she cooked breakfast. Always loved that warm stove on a cold winter morning growing up. I'd go out with my father to cut but those memories were never good cause he was a jerk and i always didnt do enough, did something wrong or found a way to displease him. I envy you guys that have fond memories of time spent with your fathers as i have none.
El Quachito
ArboristSite Operative
I think we've all got a lot in common when we are not arguing about chainsaws or splitters.
zogger
Tree Freak
Yep, that's true, especially since we all agreed that the fiskars is the best lightweight splitting axe..
whoops, did it again HAHAHAHAHA!
lindnova
ArboristSite Operative
There are a lot of similar stories on here.
We never burned wood when I was growing up. My dad never had a chainsaw and we used bow saws to do any trimming & such and friends were always happy to cut downed trees on field lines for their own firewood. I think my dad wanted us to learn everything the manual way first, and we didn't have a lot of extra cash, so it was easy for him to do that. I learned plenty about hard work, mechanics, conservation and nature from my dad though and miss him every day since he died 11 years ago.
My little brother bought a Poulon wild thing in 2001 and started clearing fence lines and was going to sell firewood. That lasted 2 years and he was tired of that and went into landscaping, but about the same time I learned from him and our cousin how to run a saw and fall a tree and bought myself a wild thing. I bought a house in 2002 with a BIS fireplace and started cutting, then got into cutting on our clearing sites at work. I hated to see all the bur oak piled and burned and was salvaging myself to burn or possibly sell - upgraded to a MS260 and borrowed my brothers splitter. I built my house in 2006 with the Heatmor outdoor furnace and a big pile of wood ready to go. Rest is history; the stacks have got larger ever since and I have been selling around 2-3 cords a year above the 13 or so I use myself. Right now I have close to 40 cords cut and stacked including what is left for this winter. I better sell some at this point as I am still cutting at least every other weekend on a rich piece of woods with lots of dead elm and oak. It has become a stress reliever and exercise (obsession) for me.
We never burned wood when I was growing up. My dad never had a chainsaw and we used bow saws to do any trimming & such and friends were always happy to cut downed trees on field lines for their own firewood. I think my dad wanted us to learn everything the manual way first, and we didn't have a lot of extra cash, so it was easy for him to do that. I learned plenty about hard work, mechanics, conservation and nature from my dad though and miss him every day since he died 11 years ago.
My little brother bought a Poulon wild thing in 2001 and started clearing fence lines and was going to sell firewood. That lasted 2 years and he was tired of that and went into landscaping, but about the same time I learned from him and our cousin how to run a saw and fall a tree and bought myself a wild thing. I bought a house in 2002 with a BIS fireplace and started cutting, then got into cutting on our clearing sites at work. I hated to see all the bur oak piled and burned and was salvaging myself to burn or possibly sell - upgraded to a MS260 and borrowed my brothers splitter. I built my house in 2006 with the Heatmor outdoor furnace and a big pile of wood ready to go. Rest is history; the stacks have got larger ever since and I have been selling around 2-3 cords a year above the 13 or so I use myself. Right now I have close to 40 cords cut and stacked including what is left for this winter. I better sell some at this point as I am still cutting at least every other weekend on a rich piece of woods with lots of dead elm and oak. It has become a stress reliever and exercise (obsession) for me.
lknchoppers
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Back in the 70s when the oil crunch came, my Dad and a couple of his buddies modified some Riteway stoves to include black iron serpentine piping and water jackets on top. Plumbed them into the hot water boiler system. That thing would eat some wood over the next 20 years. We had a station wagon and a snowmobile trailer. No truck and no really good places to get wood. My Dad's buddy had a piece of property that was half swamp, the half that had to be crossed to get to the dry land. We cut 8 -10 lengths and carried them on our shoulders through the swamp out to the road. Bucked it back at the house and split it with a "Monster Maul".When I moved out Dad had some guys he knew dump truckloads of wood in the yard. Now he just stops by and enjoys the heat from the stove and kicks back in the recliner. C/S/S 28 cords this year without traversing a swamp.
lknchoppers
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I am sorry you had to endure that type of childhood. Actually my memories are 50% good and 50% like yours & worse, I know how you feel Bud. Just don't be like that to your kids.
That's good advice.
My buddy's dad seemed like the most awesome dad around. He was like "one of the guys" and always a lot of fun to hang out with. After he passed it came out that he was very abusive to my friend and his mom behind closed doors. Still love the guy but stuff like that sucks to deal with.
My dad rode my ass but now that I have kids I can clearly see I deserved it, I was a little brat. One time his friends gave me the tongue lashing of a lifetime when I was being rude. Disliked the guy for years but I now realize what I did and plan to thank him if I ever see him again.
Coldfront
Addicted to ArboristSite
I really didn't start burning wood for heat until about 12 years ago when we moved into a house that had a wood/gas furnace in the basement. After feeling how good wood heat is I most likely will burn wood until I die or am too old to load the stove anymore.
I got started in early highschool because my best friend's dad and uncle had a 380 acre farm(mostly timber) that we hunted on and as trade, the two of us would spend EVERY weekend in the winter helping them(his dad and uncle) getting them each a loads of firewood. It was a long time before I found out that you were supposed to get your firewood cut, split, stacked and dried properly, instead of just cutting it and throwing in the stove. Eventually off to college and when home in the summers, the 2 of us started making trails through the timber, stacking cut wood all over. We never had any supervision in those days, lucky we didn't get killed or maimed! Anyway, first year out of college I built my shop and had a wood stove hooked up. I think it was a northern leader brand. Had managed to have enough wood piled all over that farm for a few years. It's just been a good experience for me being outside as a stress reliever. Just haven't been able to kick the habit, even though I spend ALOT of money on my hobby!
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